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The Spectacle Blog
Thirty minutes before we board an aircraft, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), God bless ‘em, goes through a big and elaborate Kabuki dance.
And just as people on the dance floor sometimes get a little carried away and go too far, so too do the TSA scanners sometimes push the limits of decency as it were. You know: pat down, feel up, whatever!
Now, if I thought this actually made us safer, maybe I wouldn’t mind the indignity of it all. But as I say, I think it’s all a big Kabuki dance done for show, in order to create a facade or veneer of security. I have no illusions, though, that any of these so-called safety precautions are actually making us safer and more secure.
And at least one analyst, Mark Hyman, a former intelligence officer, agrees with me. Hyman has written a superb, fact-filled post here at The American Spectator. His conclusion:
In nearly a decade, there is not a single report of a terrorist having been caught during the TSA screening process. No bombs have been discovered. No hijackings have been thwarted.
For the TSA to claim it has made the nation’s skies safer is as absurd as the rooster taking credit for the sun rising each morning. Observant passengers have caught more terrorist-wannabes than the 67,000 TSA employees…
The TSA is fueled by political correctness run amuck. Its sole accomplishments to date have been establishing a sizable airport presence and humiliating passengers…
It is long past time to disband the TSA. Replace it with an effective, free market system that actually works.
Hyman’s post ought to be required reading for every member of Congress. It’s that good and that compelling.
And if the new Republican House of Representatives wants to do right by the American people, then perhaps it ought to start by carefully reviewing the bureaucratic problems and the bureaucratic ineptitude that plague the TSA.
House Republicans also should begin exploring how to replace the TSA with a modern 21st-century screening system that inconveniences the terrorists rather than the patriotic flying public.
View all comments (15) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by John R. Guardiano
http://spectator.org/blog/2010/11/24/tsas-kabuki-dance-and-the-thea
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martin j smith| 11.24.10 @ 4:02PM
The Government of BHO which is orchestrating this entire affair is as has been normal for them--to avoid dealing with the terrorists but to force the average American Citizen to go thru hoops that are outrageous. By the way, I would also add that I have heard that thje actual number of airports doing this extensive "pat down" is very few". If so, then this is a trial balloon to seen if there would be an uproar. There was and that is good. the demand should be to go after the terrorists not a large percentage of innocent civilians. This should be the push and if the Republican Party or Tea Party Leadership were willing--to set up an inquiery as to0 why not.
David W| 11.24.10 @ 4:39PM
Several comments:
1) since Congress apparently doesn't have to live with this they really don't care (though it would be fun to watch them patting down one of the more intolernat elites).
2) required reading? since when has someone in Congress actually read something. Maybe if they put in picture at Conyers would read it.
3) don't boycott the machines, boycott flying. If the number of flying passengers drops enough, you betcha the airlines would force the TSA to do something different.
4) just have scanners that scan for explosives (or have bomb sniffing dogs near the gates - many Muslims feel dogs are unclean and would not want to be near them). Then give all of the passengers small billy clubs. Someone tries to hijack the plane he gets the snot knocked out of him (same goes for annoying drunks).
Fizzle Out| 11.24.10 @ 4:47PM
Opt out day was an epic fail. Why? Because the fringe zagnuts aren't the voice of people in the know. The leader of the zagnuts, Anne Coulter, actually stated AIT machines are just better metal detectors and TSA employees literally control how much radiation is emitted from them! Seriously? This whole anti TSA garbage is exactly that...garbage.
beebop| 11.25.10 @ 6:59AM
You aren't seriously contending that because there wasn't mass participation for Opt Out Day that somehow only "fringe zagnuts" oppose the TSA and that the system is okay with you?
You won't ever be able to calculate how many folks OPTED OUT of FLYING at all because it is almost impossible to capture that number factually. I observed countless "thank the TSA" warm and fuzzies on the television as I caught my news last night. Cheerleading the TSA? You betcha.
And please, please, please bring forth the names of the "voice of people in the know." I want to address my questions directly to them so that they get the full force and effect of my concern that the system as it is presently being pursued is an EPIC FAILURE on the level of any "we know best" government program I have ever seen.
steve h.| 11.24.10 @ 4:56PM
Independent of the merits (of lack thereof) of the new xray machines and pat downs, can someone please explain to me how any of this is going to stop a repeat of the Xmas day bomber who boarded a plane in Europe where they don't have these new TSA procedures and probably never will.
As for the new procedures, just swallow a bomb, pass through any and all xray machines or pat downs, get on the plane, and use your TSA allowed cell phone to trigger the bomb once you settle down comfortably in your seat.
With the plans to cut Government spending I suppose TSA thought the idea of spending more money on useless machines and hiring more people to protect us would keep the new Congress from cutting their budget.
Wayne | 11.25.10 @ 3:16PM
Or more easily, just make a bomb tampon.
Fuddle O Trubble| 11.24.10 @ 5:15PM
Government used to be content to have their hand in your pocket. Now they want a firm grip on your balls.
J Kruss| 11.24.10 @ 5:27PM
Opt out day was not a test of the patriotic public's opinion on new security measures mysteriously adopted and paid for by our unwitting contributions. You need to understand that a lot of the flying public is going to come up with alternative ways of travel. Hopefully the message will be received. Please realize that those who are flying now had already paid for their flights months in advance. Just keep an eye on 2011 numbers. How big a decrease in passenger lists can the airlines deal with?
Right now we are obviously playing into the terrorists' hands with our silly new policies. We need a whole lot less REACTION by our government and a whole lot more PROACTION. Maybe the rest of the world will stop laughing quite so hard at us.
Curly Smith| 11.24.10 @ 5:55PM
One of Rush's undeniable truths is that "Ours is a world governed by the aggressive use of force." Unfortunately, the Obama Administration thinks that the world is governed by the aggressive use of farce.
led miner lamp | 11.25.10 @ 10:43AM
In fact, further corrections revealed by the emails indicate that U.S. temperatures on average had only increased by 0.5 degree Celsius since 1934, rather than 1 degree, as originally claimed.
Hope N. Change| 11.28.10 @ 4:54PM
Excuse me but you must be on the wrong site because you are surely on the wrong subject.
Zilla | 11.24.10 @ 10:26PM
The Obama administration has plans to expand the Gate Rapes and porn scans far beyond airports: they will do it to people trying to board buses, trains and boats as well. Additionally, they are already scanning cars and people without anyone's knowledge or consent;
http://politizilla.blogspot.co.....-pics.html
Jim Hlavac | 11.25.10 @ 12:27PM
In my humble opinion all this security is merely the purposeful inculcation of a police state mentality. Cameras at the corners watching, videos in cop cars recording constantly, searches at every public gathering point, it keeps increasing. And for what? We live in one of the most peaceful societies on earth. We are not peaceful because of the government security measures, we are peaceful because we're mostly rational. Liberty is through vigilance, not through cattle chute control.
Ban the Muslims from overseas from flying to America on public carriers. Set up CIA or ARMY AIR and monitor those who need the monitoring, should they even need to come. The government is looking for needles in haystacks by claiming every stick of hay is a needle. No, this is not a good path to go down. For when the next needle pricks us, we'll go another step down to the police state. And the next prick precedes the next step. So that in a decade or two, every move of ours will be monitored and subject to search, having given up all liberty and privacy in person, for our supposed safety. And some crazed lunatic named Mohammed or something will think up some other strange way to get into the country and do harm. Ben Franklin is spinning in his grave.
As a gay man I have experienced the police state, what with bar raids. No, trust me on this, we do not want to keep giving authority for searching and monitoring us for our safety to the government. Naught good can come of it. Give me liberty to grope who I chose, sure, but do not grope me and pretend it is for my liberty. And that's the view of your friendly redneck gay guy on this nonsense. Some straight guy touching my junk, or worse, a woman! Harrumph!
e cowan| 11.27.10 @ 8:01PM
From REDSTATE.com
"While we were there urging the public to opt out for five hours, the line moved very fast. What we observed was that not one person was asked to go through the machine. We did not see anyone being patted down after going through the gun detector machines either.
So, security was not so tight on Wednesday and nothing bad happened. There also were explosive sniffing dogs there, which is great and much less humiliating than the gropings TSA does. Why do we need these back scatter machines if they were not using them the day a national Opt Out Day was planned?
The media spun the whole Opt Out Day as a failure because the media failed to investigate whether the TSA was using these machines that day and if these ‘enhanced’ pat downs were being done."
Seems we can get by with the TSA's enhanced groping.
The FBI caught another real terrorist by (OMG! - call the ACLU) reading the email he sent to a buddy in Pakistan, in an area controlled by the Taliban.
In prefer the FBI's approach to catching actual terrorists.